Area Firms Fear Green Card Plan

Ibm And Siemens Would Be Hit Hard

July 12, 1995|By CHARLES LUNAN Business Writer

America's growing wave of anti-immigrant sentiment could cause problems for some South Florida employers.

Later this summer, Congress could take up legislation that would cut legal immigration by one-third and charge businesses as much as $10,000 for each employee they sponsor for a green card, or permanent visa.

President Clinton has already endorsed the proposals, which originated with a congressionally appointed task force headed by former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas.

South Florida employers now pay between $1,500 and $3,000 in legal fees to get work visas for foreign nationals, immigration attorneys estimated.

"They would be making it yet more expensive for the United States to compete economically," said Benton Howie, director of human resources at Siemens-Stromberg Carlson. "It does not make any sense. We are just shooting ourselves in the foot."

As many as 200 of the German-based electronics giant's 1,200 employees in Boca Raton are foreign nationals working with green cards or work visas. Most are highly trained engineers and programmers who develop the computerized switches Siemens sells to local telephone companies.

Another company in South Florida that would be hit hard is International Business Machines. Half of the 500 programmers working as contract employees at the company's software lab in Boca Raton are working on temporary work permits, according to one former contractor at the site.

Programmer Robert Heath said contractors hired by IBM have been steadily replacing higher-paid American programmers with lower-paid Indian programmers. That allowed contractors to cut wage rates from $43 to $28 an hour since 1992, Heath said. "They go out and hire third-party companies so they don't have to dirty their own hands and then claim they don't know anything about it," Heath said in an interview from Houston, where he is working.

IBM spokesman Alan Macher confirmed IBM employs between 300 and 600 indepedent contractors at the lab, but he said there was no way for IBM to know how many were working on temporary work visas.